Men's Swimming & Diving

Men's Swimming and Diving Overpowers Wheaton, 224-48

NORTON, Mass. - Behind three wins each from Laurent Charpentier, Rastislav Racz and Michael Dobson, MIT's men's swimming and diving team eased to a 224-48 victory over New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) foe Wheaton College on Saturday afternoon in Balfour Natatorium. The Engineers garnered maximum points in 13 of the 14 swimming events and both diving events in a contest that was selected as SwimmingWorldMagazine.com's Meet of the Week.

MIT improved its dual meet record to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the NEWMAC this season with the triumph, while Wheaton fell to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the conference.

Remarkably, the Cardinal and Gray had the top-two finishing quartets in both of the afternoon's relay events. Jeff Zhou and Luke Cummings teamed up with Charpentier and Racz to take top honors in the meet's opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, with a time of 1:37.26. They were followed in second-place by Peter Wellings, Deke Hu, Toomas Sepp and Kalvin Kao - a group which clocked in at 1:41.98. The Engineers performed a similar feat in the afternoon's final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Zhou, Dobson, Cummings and Trace Sauter were the victors, touching the wall first at 3:19.75, while Charpentier, Wellings, Brendon Sullivan and Eric Roselli copped runner-up honors by finishing with a time of 3:20.58.

In addition to one relay win apiece, Charpentier, Racz and Dobson each picked up two individual victories, as well. Charpentier, a junior transfer-student in his first year with the Cardinal and Gray, took first-place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.02, while teammate Cummings finished right behind at 22.08. The 100-yard butterfly was also won by Charpentier, as he touched the wall at 53.18 to beat out the competition. Racz won both the 100-yard (1:00.89) and 200-yard (2:14.45) breaststroke events, while Dobson finished first in both the 500-yard (4:48.62) and 1000-yard (10:02.94) freestyles. Incredibly, Racz led a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, as he was followed by Kao (2:17.71) and Hu (2:18.20), while Dobson's top time in the 1000-yard freestyle was trailed by Jack Hill (10:19.65), Harrison Hall (10:27.95) and Roselli (10:50.42) to give Tech the top four finishers.

MIT's swimmers engineered three more 1-2-3 finishes on the afternoon, beginning with Kao (1:48.87), Hu (1:52.35) and Zack Cordero (1:52.63) in the 200-yard freestyle. The Cardinal and Gray did the same in the 100-yard backstroke (Wellings, Sepp, Sauter) and the 400-yard individual medley (Kao, Hu, Hill).

The Engineers other swimming triumphs came in the 100-yard freestyle, which was won by Wellings with a time of 49.10, and the 200-yard backstroke, which Sepp earned maximum points in by touching the wall first at 2:07.09.

Freshman Carson Darling won both the one-meter and three-meter diving events, scoring 202.20 points and 205.45 points, respectively, though he dove without a competitor from Wheaton.

MIT won't return to action until after the winter break, as the Engineers will have a lengthy recovery time until their next meet on Saturday, Jan. 19, when they will host Colby College at 1:00 p.m. Wheaton will also return after the winter hiatus, as it will battle Clark University and Vassar College at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 12.